A dining car (American English) or restaurant car (British English), also diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals on a train in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. The Royal Blue was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O 's flagship Passenger train between New York City and Washington D This article is about railroad equipment For other cars see Automobile and Wiktionary definition of passenger car. A train is a connected series of vehicles that move along a track ( Permanent way) to transport freight or passengers from one place to another
It is distinct from other types of railroad food service cars that do not duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, principally cars of various types in which one purchases food from a walk-up counter to be consumed either within the car or elsewhere in the train. Grill cars, in which customers sit on stools at a counter and purchase and consume food cooked on a grill behind the counter are generally considered to be an "intermediate" type of dining car.
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History
Before the inclusion of dining cars in passenger train became common practice, a rail passenger's only option for meal service in transit was to patronize one of the roadhouses often located near the railroad's water stops. A water stop or water station on a railroad is a place where Trains stop to replenish Water. Fare typically consisted of nothing more than rancid meat, cold beans, and week-old coffee. Such poor conditions understandably discouraged many Americans from making the journey westward.
Most railroads began offering some form of meal service on their trains even before the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. This article refers to a railroad built in the United States between Omaha and Sacramento completed in 1869 By the mid-1880s, dedicated dining cars were a normal part of all long-distance trains departing from Chicago for points westward, save for those of the Santa Fe, who relied on America's first interstate network of restaurants to feed its passengers en route. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The legendary "Harvey Houses," located strategically along the line, served top-quality meals to railroad patrons during water stops and other planned layovers and were favored over in-transit facilities for all trains operating west of Kansas City. The origin of the Fred Harvey Company can be traced to the 1875 opening of two railroad eating houses located at Wallace Kansas and Hugo Colorado on the Kansas Kansas City Missouri only Items for the metro area Kansas City Kansas or North Kansas City MO should go on their respective pages
As competition among the railroads intensified, dining car service was taken to new levels. When the Santa Fe rolled out its new "Pleasure Dome"-Lounge cars in 1951, the railroad introduced the travelling public to the Turquoise Room, promoted as "The only private dining room in the world on rails. A dome car is a type of Railway passenger car that has a glass Dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around " The room accommodated 12 guests, and could be reserved anytime for private dinner or cocktail parties, or other special functions. The room was often used by the era's celebrities and dignitaries while traveling on the Super Chief. The Super Chief was one of the named passenger trains and the Flagship of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
In one of the most common dining car configurations, one end of the car contains a galley (with a side aisle next to it, so that passengers can pass through that end of the car to other cars of the train) while the other end supports table or booth seating on either side of a center aisle. The galley is the compartment of a Ship, Submarine, Train or Aircraft where food is cooked and prepared
Trains with high demand for dining car services have sometimes featured "double-unit dining cars" consisting of two adjacent cars functioning to some extent as a single entity, generally with one car containing a galley plus table or booth seating and the other car containing table or booth seating only.
In the dining cars of Amtrak's modern bilevel Superliner trains, booth seating on either side of a center aisle occupies almost the entire upper level, while the galley is below; food is sent to the upper level on a dumbwaiter. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Doing business as Amtrak, is a Government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971 The Superliner is a double decker passenger car used by Amtrak on long haul trains that do not use the Northeast Corridor.
Dining cars are often prized for the manner in which they enhance the familiar restaurant experience by offering a unique form of visual entertainment, namely the ever-changing views of the world outside. While dining cars are less common today than they were in the past (having been supplemented, or in some cases replaced altogether by other types of food-service cars) they still play a significant role in passenger railroading, especially on medium- and long-distance trains.
Today, a number of tourist-oriented railroads offer dinner excursions to capitalize on the public's fascination with the overall dining car experience. Tourism is Travel for Recreational or Leisure purposes The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel
References
- Foster, George H. and Peter C. Weiglin (1992). The Harvey House Cookbook: Memories of Dining along the Santa Fe Railroad. Longstreet Press, Atlanta, GA. ISBN 1-56352-357-4.
- Luckin, Richard W. (1994). Mimbres to Mimbreño: A Study of Santa Fe's Famous China Pattern. RK Publishing, Golden, CO. ISBN 0-9626362-1-5.
- Luckin, Richard W. , dir. (DVD) (2003). Super Chief: Speed-Style-Service. RK Publishing, Golden, CO.
- Porterfield, James D. (1993). Dining by Rail: The History and Recipes of America's Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine. St. Martin's Press, New York, NY. ISBN 0-312-18711-4.
- Schafer, Mike and Joe Welsh (1997). Streamliners: History of a Railroad Icon. MBI Publishing Co. , St. Paul, MN. ISBN 0-7603-1371-7.
- The American Railroad Passenger Car by John H. White, Jr. Two Volumes (1978) by Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ISBN 0-8018-2743-4 (pbk. : set: alk. paper)
- ISBN 0-8018-2722-1 (pbk. : v. 1: alk. paper)
- ISBN 0-8018-2747-7 (pbk. : v. 2: alk. paper)
See also
- List of named passenger trains
- Dining aboard the Super Chief
- El Comedor
- Famous trains
- Fred Harvey Company
- Napa Valley Wine Train
- Restaurant
- Troop kitchen
- Buffet car
External links
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway No. 1471 Cochiti — photographs and short history of a Super Chief Dining Car built in 1936. In the history of Rail transport, dating back to the 19th Century there have been literally hundreds of named passenger trains. The Super Chief was one of the named passenger trains and the Flagship of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. El Comedor (RI #428 is former Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Dining car, built in 1947 by Pullman-Standard to plan 7517 for the The origin of the Fred Harvey Company can be traced to the 1875 opening of two railroad eating houses located at Wallace Kansas and Hugo Colorado on the Kansas The Napa Valley Wine Train is operated by the Napa Valley Railroad. A restaurant is a retail establishment that serves prepared Food to Customers. In United States Railroad terminology, a troop sleeper was a railroad passenger car which had been constructed to serve as something of a mobile barracks (essentially A buffet car is a passenger car of a train where snacks and drinks can be bought at a counter and consumed Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
- Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society — restoration of two historic dining cars to recreate the dinner in the diner experience.
- Eureka Springs and North Arkansas Railway's dining car service